As we head into the hot summer months, who isn’t looking for ways to cut back on their power bill?  It might be that energy leaks in your home are costing you more than you think.  There are ways to find those leaks and tools to keep your energy use low.

ProEnergy Consultants is a local home energy audit company.   They will come into your home with tools like a thermographic scanner to find the abnormally warm or cool spots around windows and doors - even walls where insulation may be too thin - to help you identify where you may have energy leaks and why your bills may be higher than you’d like.  Eillen Ruiz, a ProEnergy consultant will be at the Green Outlet in the Arts Factory on E. Charleston for First Friday, June 5.  She will have solution products like a solar attic fan, which is installed on the roof and uses sunlight to power a fan that pulls warm air out of hot areas of your home - like your garage.  (Eileen likes to call it the “man cave.”  Very fitting.)  Also something simple with a big name - radiant barrier - is simply foil-like material placed over your attic insulation to reflect the heat from the sun.  It helps keep more heat out and ultimately the house cooler.

Find Eileen at First Friday and check out a lot of other neat ideas she’ll have with her at the Green Outlet in the Arts Factory.  Otherwise check out their website if you’re interested in an audit.  By the way, home audits go for about ten cents a square foot.  And after they identify the problem areas of your home - you can take their ideas to improve energy savings and do them yourself, or they put you in touch with the right people who can install energy saving products for you.  If you’re looking to lower your power bills - it’s a cool place to start!

Tags: energy savings, First Friday, ProEnergy

Categories: Energy, Ideas